Ukrainian speaker claims US may deploy military reserves to assist country

Date of publication: 20 06 2017, 12:34

Andrii Parubii, the chairman of the Ukrainian parliament, said that the United States would have a possibility to deploy its military reserves on Ukrainian territory if the potential security agreement between Kiev and Washington was signed.

On June 12-16, Parubii visited the United States. During the visit, the official called for a bilateral US-Ukrainian accord on security and for the provision of lethal weapons to Kiev.

“It [the agreement] implies carrying out special operations, implementation of joint scientific and technical developments and deployment on the Ukrainian territory of the US military reserves,” the Verkhovna Rada speaker said, as quoted by the ICTV broadcaster.

Parubii added that Washington had been using such format for years, citing agreements between the United States and Australia, Israel and Japan.

On Wednesday, US Congressman Rick Larsen told Sputnik that the US Congress would probably continue talks on providing lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine and including that into next year’s defense budget.

Russian officials have repeatedly warned that Washington providing Ukraine with weapons will only escalate violence and lead to more bloodshed in Ukraine’s southeastern regions.